Welcome
to
REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC
Edited by Ru Igarashi
Based on the work of Steve Pearl
This article can be freely distributed for non-commercial use,
as long as all credits and notices remain intact. If this is to be
used in any publication, including CD-ROM collections, please
contact the maintainer for permission at
e-mail:ru.igarashi@usask.ca.
Please e-mail all additions/corrections/comments to:
ru.igarashi@usask.ca
Changes since last posting:
- none
FAQ Entries needed (submissions welcome):
-
Contents:
1. About this FAQ
o WHAT IS THIS FAQ FOR?
o WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THIS FAQ?
o WHAT ARE THOSE OTHER ANIME MUSIC FAQS?
o WHERE CAN I FIND THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS FAQ?
2. The News Group
o WHAT IS REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
o HOW OLD IS REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
o WHAT ARE THE OTHER ANIME GROUPS?
o HOW TO USE REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC (For NEW UseNet users)
o ARE J-POP DISCUSSIONS ALLOWED?
o CAN I POST SOUND FILES TO REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
o SO IT'S OK TO TALK ABOUT SOUND FILES AND TRADING THEM?
o HOW ABOUT MUSIC VIDEO OR COVER IMAGE FILES?
o HOW DO I CREATE/POST SOUND FILES?
o CAN I POST FOR SALE/FOR TRADE/AUCTION MESSAGES?
A. Contributors
B. Disclaimer
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1. About this FAQ
o WHAT IS THIS FAQ FOR?
This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a companion to a set of FAQs
for the rec.arts.anime.music newsgroup and anime music in general.
It is intended to be a reference of basic information about the news
group, e.g. the kinds of topics that are intended. As a set, the
FAQs are intended as a reasonably accessible reference to basic
information about the news group, rec.arts.anime.music, and topics
that are frequently encountered as a fan progresses from novice to
"expert". They are posted once a month in rec.arts.anime.music.
They are not by any means comprehensive, and are subject to the
changes of the times. Items that could do with more input are
tagged with "editor's note" and a note, delimited by '[' and ']'.
If you have any suggestions, corrections, or submissions, please
send them to me or post them in rec.arts.anime.music.
This FAQ (Welcome to rec.arts.anime.music) provides general
information regarding the newsgroup rec.arts.anime.music, but
primarily regarding what are or aren't considered appropriate
topics for postings. See the other anime music FAQs for
music related information and glossary of terms typically
used in the newsgroup.
o WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THIS FAQ?
This rec.arts.anime.music FAQ was originally created and maintained
by Steve Pearl, the moderator of rec.arts.anime.info, who saw the
need for introductory FAQs for many of the rec.arts.anime news groups
as they were being created in 1996. He maintained them until the
fall of 1998.
In January of 2001, maintainance of this FAQ was assumed by the
current maintainer, and after significant revisions and updates,
regular posting resumed in March, 2001. Steve's entries are
attributed by [SP], or [SP,RI] where I've made significant changes.
In May of 2003, the FAQ was split into two documents, one for
information about the newsgroup (this one) titled "Welcome to
REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC" and one for anime music information titled
"Anime Music FAQ for REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC". The latter was split
into multiple parts.
The current maintainer and this news group owe a debt of gratitude
to Steve Pearl, for his foresight at the birth of this news group
and the effort he put into this and other rec.arts.anime FAQs.
Wherever you are, Steve, Thanks.
o WHAT ARE THOSE OTHER ANIME MUSIC FAQS?
"Anime Music FAQ for REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC" - an FAQ with various
types of information ranging from disc specific to commercial.
http://www.geocities.com/ruigarashi/FAQS/raa_music/
o WHERE CAN I FIND THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS FAQ?
This FAQ is posted every 4 weeks to
rec.arts.anime.musicrec.arts.anime.miscnews.answersrec.answers
The most recently posted version can also be found at the *.answers
archives:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/arts/anime/
This is a bit slow to update, but generally within a week of the
posting of this FAQ, the rtfm.mit.edu site should be up to date.
There is an HTML version at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/anime/music/
but that archive uses the rtfm.mit.edu ftp site as its source, so
the version there lags even more than the above ftp site.
The latest working copy that contains changes going into the next
official posting can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/ruigarashi/FAQS/raa_music/rec.arts.anime.music_welcome.html
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2. The News Group
o WHAT IS REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
The NetNews charter list has this entry for rec.arts.anime.music [SP]:
rec.arts.anime.music Music as it pertains to Japanese animation.
An unmoderated newsgroup for the discussion of anime-related music,
involving music as it pertains to the work as a whole. For lyrics,
singing artists, Japanese Pop, available CDs, soundtracks,
translations, radio, sheet music, etc.
o HOW OLD IS REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
The first anime news group was rec.arts.anime, which dates back from
the dawn of news groups. There were two subsequent splits, and in
the second one, in March 1996, rec.arts.anime.music was created.
o WHAT ARE THE OTHER ANIME GROUPS?
In the "Big-8" (rec.*, comp.*...), the anime-related news groups are:
rec.arts.anime.music Anime related music, CDs, songs, etc
rec.arts.anime.info Anime related news, synopses, reviews
(Moderated, but seems to only post
"auto-approved" messages)
rec.arts.anime.marketplace Buying & selling of anime related
merchandise
rec.arts.anime.misc Renaming of the original rec.arts.anime
newsgroup.
rec.arts.anime.models All about Anime Models and modelling
rec.arts.anime.games Anime related games (Card, Video,
Roleplaying, etc)
rec.arts.anime.creative Anime related fan-created works
(Moderated)
rec.arts.anime.fandom Devoted to the fandom aspects of anime.
The "otaku no newsgroup".
When posting to moderated groups, please be sure to read the posting
guidelines, which usually appear every 2 weeks. Because these
newsgroups are moderated, articles have to be "approved" first.
Reading of the guidelines will greatly increase the chances of your
article being approved and posted. Rec.arts.anime.music is not
moderated, so you don't have to worry about moderation if you
don't crosspost. But if you do crosspost to a moderated news group,
the posting will not appear anywhere until the moderator approves
it, so avoid doing so (if you have to post a message in a moderated
group, do it separately). [SP,RI]
There are several other newsgroups not in the rec.arts.anime
hierarchy which may be of interest to the anime fan. However,
these are beyond the scope of this FAQ, and more information can
be found in the "Welcome to rec.arts.anime.misc" FAQ posted in
rec.arts.anime.misc.
[editor's note: Um, what about other anime music discussion
news groups?]
o HOW TO USE REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC (For NEW UseNet users)
If you're a new NetNews reader and don't know the correct protocol
and etiquette for posting messages, the following files accessible
in the news.announce.newusers newsgroup are recommended reading:
- "A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet"
- "Rules for posting to Usenet"
- "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions"
Some basic tips:
- If you don't see postings about a subject you're interested in (and
which is related to this newsgroup), don't gripe, POST AN ARTICLE
ABOUT THAT SUBJECT! If you receive no reply in a week, TRY AGAIN!
Fires don't always start with the first spark.
- If you feel the need to insult someone, do it by electronic mail,
or better yet, write a scathing message and then throw it away.
Please don't do it here. It's irritating to the bystanders, and
harmful to your public image.
- Before you submit a follow-up to a message, read the rest of the
messages in the newsgroup to see whether someone has already said
what you want to say. If someone has, don't repeat it.
- It doesn't hurt to quote the message you are following up, but
try to only include the parts you are responding to, rather
than the whole message.
- If you want to send a test post, don't do it here. Use one of the
"test" news groups, such as test, alt.test, <region>.test where
<region> could be uk, can, us, etc.
[SP,RI]
- Remember that rec.arts.anime.music is primarily an English language
newsgroup (most rec.* groups are, by default). While there are
Japanese terms that are well known, it's probably best to assume
readers here wouldn't know what you meant if you did write something
Japanese.
o ARE J-POP DISCUSSIONS ALLOWED?
No and Yes. In principle, discussions should be limited to
anime-related music, i.e. anime-related j-pop. But during the
discussions that resulted in creating this group, it was
acknowledged there was no Big-8 forum specific to J-pop, and that
given the choice between the ultra-general rec.music.misc and the
japanese orientation of rec.arts.anime.music, the latter would
probably be the prefered location. However, soc.culture.japan
explicitly allows discussion of J-pop, thus discussions of
J-pop in general should really be taken there if at all possible.
If there is ever a J-pop news group outside of rec.arts.anime,
the anime limitation should be be taken more seriously.
o CAN I POST SOUND FILES TO REC.ARTS.ANIME.MUSIC?
You shouldn't. Keep in mind that this is a discussion group.
Binaries, such as sound files, do not constitute discussion
(though they may be the subject of discussion). Furthermore,
there is a general policy for rec.* groups that binaries not be
posted in them. That applies to all rec.arts.anime news groups
except possibly rec.arts.anime.creative (consult the guidelines
there). If you need to distribute a sound file, either post to
one of the alt.binaries.sounds.* groups, or, better yet, put it
up on an FTP or web site, and then post the address in
rec.arts.anime.music. The same applies to image and video
files, as well as most files that are not human readable (e.g.
postscript is text, but it isn't human readable).
Some possible alt.binaries.sounds.* groups you could use are:
alt.binaries.sounds.animealt.binaries.sounds.jpopalt.binaries.sounds.midi MIDI music files
alt.binaries.sounds.mods .MOD, .S3M, etc, music files
alt.binaries.sounds.cartoons Sound files related to animated features
alt.binaries.sounds.movies Movie-related sound files
alt.binaries.sounds.musicalt.binaries.sounds.tv Sound files from TV series
[SP,RI]
Note: Not everyone gets these news groups, so don't be surprised
if you can't find it.
o SO IT'S OK TO TALK ABOUT SOUND FILES AND TRADING THEM?
Keep in mind that trading of sound files is usually a violation
of copyright laws, and some folks that read this news group view
this also as ethically inappropriate (it's piracy). You may not
want to advertise your trading activities in rec.arts.anime.music
if you do not want the criticism.
Also, it has been pointed out that some law enforcement agencies
use the same newgroup servers as us ordinary folks. That means
whatever piracy/bootlegging postings we see, they can see.
However, if you want to talk about sound files that you made for
yourself only (e.g. what your best compilation CD would be),
then you can probably chatter away with little criticism (you
may even be worshipped as the god of compilations).
o HOW ABOUT MUSIC VIDEO OR COVER IMAGE FILES?
As mentioned regarding sound files, the same policy and recommendations
for sound files applies to video and image files. It applies to all
types of files that can't be read by people as straight text. For
example, Postscript files are text files, but they can't be viewed
properly by simply reading the content. Many folks also consider HTML
as inappropriate for the same reason. But there is no question about
digitized audio/visual files, posting them is against policy. The only
types of "binaries" considered acceptable are small (a few lines worth)
PGP and similar encryption key/ID signatures. So no samples of your
music video handiwork, no images of CD covers for others to translate,
in this news group.
o HOW DO I CREATE/POST SOUND FILES?
How to post sound files is beyond the scope of this FAQ
(and rec.arts.anime.music). One of the alt.binaries.sounds
news groups might have an FAQ with this.
o CAN I POST FOR SALE/FOR TRADE/AUCTION MESSAGES?
You really shouldn't. The news group rec.arts.anime.marketplace
exists for just that purpose, and the general news group policy
is that if a group exists for a certain kind of posting, it
shouldn't be posted elsewhere. Furthermore, such postings aren't
really in the discussion category. Finally, surveys indicate
the majority of rec.arts.anime.* readers don't want them in any of
the groups except in rec.arts.anime.marketplace.
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A. Contributors
As with most FAQs, the information documented in the
rec.arts.anime.music FAQ comes from many people (yes, anime fans
are people, too). Our thanks should go to these people.
Steve Pearl (who started the rec.arts.anime.music FAQ)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B. Disclaimer
This document is provided without any warrantees, implied or
expressed. The editor assumes no responsibility for damages
resulting from the use of the information the document contains
or the lack thereof.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited by Ru Igarashi.
E-mail submissions to and questions about the newsgroup to
ru.igarashi@usask.ca.

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